Wild revelation about USA Basketball's 'bounty' at Sydney Olympics
Ever since the first Dream Team, the US Basketball team have always been the ones to beat at the Olympics – and boy, do they know it.
They’ve never been shy about their status as top dogs in international basketball, but Kevin Garnett’s story from the Sydney Olympics takes things to a whole new level.
The former NBA MVP revealed the 2000 Olympic team had placed a bounty on the head of one of their biggest rivals – China’s man-mountain, Yao Ming.
“First of all, people didn’t know, we had a bounty out on Yao Ming,” Garnett said.
“The whole USA team had a bet.
“We had a million dollar bet on who was going to be the first person to dunk on Yao Ming. None of us did.
“We all tried to dunk on Yao, but he would block it or we would miss.”
That Olympics also had one of the most memorable moments in international basketball – Vince Carter’s ludicrously disrespectful dunk on French center Frederic Weis.
OTD: Vince Carter dunks over 7-foot-2 French center Frederic Weis in the 2000 Olympics.
Is it the greatest dunk ever? pic.twitter.com/QlsqmdjUAC
— The Crossover (@TheCrossover) September 25, 2018
Given Weis’ similar stature compared to Ming, Garnett mistakenly thought Carter had won the million-dollar kitty.
“I pushed Vince, and if you look at the clip, he almost punches me in the face by accident,” Garnett said.
“But my first thought was, oh s***, you won, you got the million.”